Benefits of meditation:
- Contributes to a peaceful and fulfilling life.
- Brings serenity and inner happiness.
- Brings more patience, lovingness, acceptance, tolerance, kindness, etc.
- Relieves stress and stress-related illnesses.
- Increases attention, concentration, and productivity.
- Brings self-awareness and mindfulness as well as awareness of the cosmos.
- Gives new perspectives and enhances creativity
- Increases parasympathetic activity, bringing calmness and relaxation.
- Brings new ideas
- Brings perseverance
Mindfulness is the practice of living in the present moment. In mindfulness, we realize that we are not doing anything. All things happen by themselves. Anger, anxiety, depression, sadness, jealousy, etc. are our creations. These do not exist outside of us. We create all the issues, there are no issues outside us, and there are no issues in the present moment. Thinking about the past brings resentment and future thinking mainly brings anxiety. The present moment is life and it has nothing else.
Breathing happens in the present moment, which is why breathing techniques are important in mindfulness. Breath never happens in the past or future. At birth, life starts with deep breaths going inside. Life ends at death with a deep breath going out. Between this first inhalation and last exhalation is life.
Breathing practices or pranayam--
- Bring our focus to the present moment
- Gives energy
- Control the mind ( try thinking while holding the breath-- impossible)
- Helps in emotional control(number of breaths per min and breathing pattern changes with different emotions)
- Remove CO2 from the body
- Increases immunity
Meditation pose:
- Sit in sukhasan, padmasan, simhasan, or bhadrasan
- Back is erect
- shoulders are expanded
- Hands in any mudra or palms on top of each other
- Neck erect
- Lips closed
- teeth partially open
- tip of tongue touching the front palate
- fixed gaze
- smile on face
The मनसा परिक्रमा मंत्र (Manasaa Parikramaa Mantras) of Sandhya beckon to us to become the leader of the mind and rotate it in a virtual tour of the the four cardinal directions, the lower and the upper regions of our immediate and remote surroundings. The mind has a tendency to dominate and would like to lead us in the directions it wants to go. Manasaa Parikramaa is a daily practice to reverse this tendency by asserting the leadership of the will and the intellect and making the mind into an obedient servant like a well-trained pet-animal that responds to the commands of its master without hesitation. The Vedic Rishis realized that when a man is equipped with a disciplined and well-trained mind he can attain the goal of worldly happiness and inner fulfillmnent (Peeti and Abhisthi) without much difficulty.
The Vedic Rishis, based on their keen observation and study of human behaviour concluded that:
1.The mind is mobile by nature, vascillating, and restless (chanchal)
2.The mind loves to revel in the past and the future more than the present moment
3.The mind is addicted to the past and loves to fantasize about the future
- Control of mind can turn an ordinary man into a genius
- The Science of Yoga is primarily about stilling/controlling the mind
6.The quality of one’s mindset determines the quality of his/her life - The mind can cause serious illness(auto-immune conditions) and can cure illness(self-healing) as well
- The control of the mind is the key to spiritual awakening and enlightenment
https://www.srmdelhi.org/meditations/
Morning-Balance-Meditation.mp3